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PTR
12.0.5
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Guide Contents
Patch 12.0.5
4.7/5
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5
Votes)
Unholy Death Knight DPS Starter Guide - Shadowlands 9.2.5
By Bicepspump
Updated:
2022/11/28
Welcome to our Unholy Death Knight starter guide, which covers everything you need to start playing a new character in . While our other guide pages go into more detail about individual aspects of Unholy Death Knight gameplay, this simple starter guide covers all the basics in one place.
Visit the complete Unholy Death Knight guide pages linked in the navigation on the left-hand side of the page for more in-depth information!
Overview
BiS Gear
Rotation
Talent Builds
Consumables
Stats
Basics
Best Unholy Death Knight Covenant
Best Unholy Death Knights Covenants and Soulbinds for Raid
Single Legendary
Double Legendary
Necrolord
Marileth
Necrolord
Marileth
Best Unholy Death Knight Covenants and Soulbinds for Mythic+
Single Legendary
Double Legendary
Necrolord
Marileth
Night Fae
Dreamweaver
Best Unholy Death Knight Covenant
Kyrian Unholy Death Knight GuideNecrolord Unholy Death KnightGuide
Night Fae Unholy Death Knight GuideVenthyr Unholy Death Knight Guide
Best Unholy Death Knight Legendaries
Best Single Legendaries
Raid Legendary
:
Deadliest Coil
/
Frenzied Monstrosity
Mythic+ Legendary
:
Frenzied Monstrosity
/
Reanimated Shambler
Best Double Legendaries
Raid Legendaries
:
Deadliest Coil
/
Frenzied Monstrosity
and
Abomination's Frenzy
Mythic+ Legendaries
:
Frenzied Monstrosity
/
Reanimated Shambler
and
Rampant Transference
.
When it comes to crafting order, it depends heavily on the content that you're focusing on. If you are pushing raid seriously, do craft
Deadliest Coil
to the highest ilvl. If you're pushing Mythic+,
Frenzied Monstrosity
is much better to fully craft. Take a look at our legendary guide to learn more about the legendaries available to Unholy Death Knights, or our crafting guide to find all the materials you need to craft them.
UnholyDeath Knight Legendaries Guide
Best Unholy Death Knight Talents
This is a well rounded Unholy Death Knight build which works well in all situations. For a deeper look at each talent and more specialized builds, see the Unholy Death Knight Talent Guide.
Unholy Death Knight Talents Guide
Unholy Death Knight Stat Priority
Unlike previous expansions, primary stats such as Strength are much more important than they used to be, and secondary stats are close enough together that item level is usually more important factor when it comes to choosing gear. You can find out more about how stats work in the full
Unholy Death Knight Gear
and
Stat Priority
guides.
Strength > Mastery > Haste = Crit > Versatility
Strength
: Increases all damage done by native class spells, abilities, and auto attacks. Importantly, it also increases the damage from our pets since they inherit our stats! Previously one of the weakest stats, but now much more impactful, making raw item level much more important again.
Haste
: Compresses the rotation by reducing both the GCD as well as increasing the proc rate of most spells and trinkets.
Critical Strike
: Increases damage done by abilities, auto attacks, and trinkets.
Mastery
: Increases the shadow damage you do. Importantly, this is only spells and abilities specific to the unholy death knight, not trinkets or potions or other sources of potential shadow damage.
Versatility
: Increases damage done and reduces damage taken by half the amount. Unlike Mastery, however, it affects all damage done including trinkets, potions, and enchantments.
Unholy Death Knight Stats Guide
Unholy Death Knight Enchants and Consumables
Death Knights will always use a Runeforge enchant on their weapon. Other enchants follow our stat priority.
Cloak:
Enchant Cloak - Fortified Speed
Chest:
Enchant Chest - Eternal Stats
+
Heavy Desolate Armor Kit
Gloves:
Enchant Gloves - Eternal Strength
Rings:
Enchant Ring - Tenet of Mastery
Weapon:
Rune of the Fallen Crusader
Unholy Death Knight Enchants and Consumables Guide
Best Unholy Death Knight Rotation
This Unholy Death Knight rotation uses the talent build listed above to outline a basic priority. For the full rotation including talent variations, you can consult the Unholy Death Knight Rotation Guide.
Keep up
Virulent Plague
on all targets with
Outbreak
(or
Unholy Blight
when possible).
Use
Dark Transformation
on Cooldown.
Use
Apocalypse
on Cooldown, making sure you have 4 or more
Festering Wound
s on the target before casting the ability.
Use
Death and Decay
when fighting 2 or more enemies.
Cast
Scourge Strike
when fighting 2 or more enemies and your
Death and Decay
is on the ground.
Cast
Festering Strike
when you have less than 4
Festering Wound
s on the target.
Cast
Scourge Strike
when you have 4 or more
Festering Wound
s on the target
Cast
Epidemic
when fighting 3 or more targets to spend Runic Power and use up procs of
Sudden Doom
.
Cast
Death Coil
to spend Runic Power or to use up procs of
Sudden Doom
.
Use
Army of the Dead
before engaging more powerful enemies.
Unholy Death Knight Rotation Guide
Best Conduits for Unholy Death Knights in Shadowlands
S-tier
Eternal Hunger
Convocation of the Dead
Brutal Grasp
A-tier
Embrace Death
Adaptive Armor Fragment
Proliferation
Impenetrable Gloom
Withering Ground
Unholy Death Knight Conduit Guide
Back to Top
Our Unholy Death Knight guides are always updated with the latest information from in-game experience, simulations, and logs. Make sure to check our changelog for this page by clicking on
View Changelog
in the Quick Facts column or on the book icon at the top of the page. If you are interested in more in-depth Unholy Death Knight guides for , make sure to browse the
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at the top of the page.
Feedback
Thanks for reading our class guides! If you have any feedback, feel free to leave a comment in the section below, and we will reply as quickly as possible. If you'd like to talk with any of our writers directly, you can do so by joining our
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and finding them there!
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